The Great Financial Meltdown

The Great Financial Meltdown reviews, advocates and critiques the systemic, conjunctural and policy-based explanations for the 2008 crisis. The book expertly examines these explanations to assess their analytical and empirical validity. Comprehensive yet accessible chapters, written by a collection of prominent authors, cover a wide range of political economy approaches to the crisis, from Marxian through to Post Keynesian and other heterodox schools.

‘What caused the 2007–09 global financial crisis and Great Recession? Why was the «recovery» from this crisis period anemic or, in many countries, such as Greece, non-existent? Orthodox economists have almost completely drawn a blank in providing useful answers. By contrast, The Great Financial Meltdown provides a rich array of alternative – and frequently conflicting – perspectives from the Marxian, Post Keynesian and related heterodox traditions. All serious students of real-world economics will have their minds opened by studying this impressive collection.’
– Robert Pollin, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, US‘This book offers fresh insights across the ultimate causes and the long-term implications of the current crisis. It also critically examines the policy alternatives currently on the table, advancing constructive forms of engagement both among the heterodoxy, and with mainstream economics. There is simply no better starting-point to understand the ongoing predicament of advanced as well as “emerging” economies.’
– Alfredo Saad-Filho, SOAS, University of London, UK